Ice guard



L. A. O'BRIEN Oct, 13, 1953 ICE GUARD 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 3, 1948 Laurence U'E B fMWQ- XW Oct. 13, 1953 L. A. O'BRIEN 2,655,106

1015: GUARD Filed June 3, 1948 2 Sheets-Shee-t.2

T h J7 ll q p l 75 y l INVENTUR 60 Laurence A. O'Brien Patented Oct. 13, 1953 ICE GUARD Laurence A. OBrien, South Orange, N. .L, assignor to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of War Application June 3, 1948, Serial No. 30,880

1 Claim.

This invention relates to an ice guard for the nose of a projectile, such as a bomb or rocket mounted under the wing of an airplane, and has for its primary purpose the protection of delicate mechanism, such as a wind vane or photo-electric eye which may be mounted in the nose of such projectiles.

It has been a common practice to mount bombs and rockets in wing brackets of certain types of airplanes. Often these projectiles are provided with relatively delicate mechanism in the nose portion thereof, such as wind vanes and antennae structure, or photo-electric eyes (in the case of proximity fuzes) Since the projectile is mounted in an exposed location, in bad weather or at high elevations, the nose of the projectile will often become covered or encased with ice or snow to such an extent as to interfere with the proper operation of the projectile when it is released or launched. It is an object of my invention to obviate this difficulty by providing a shield or ice guard for the exposed operative portions of the projectile, together with means for releasing said shield from the interior of the plane or other remote point prior to launching or releasing the projectile.

Another object is to provide a device for the above purpose which will be simple in construction and operation, easy to assemble in position and reliable in operation even when covered up with ice or snow.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the appended description and drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a projectile equipped with my invention,

Fig. 2 is a front view of the nose of the same projectile,

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal view in partial section of the projectile shown in Fig. 1, taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the ice guard of Figs. 1-3 prior to assembly on a fuze,

Fig. 5 is a side view of a projectile equipped with a modified form of my invention,

Fig. 6 is a front sectional view of the projectile shown in Fig. 4, taken on line 66 of Fig. 5,

Fig. 7 is a longitudinal view in partial section taken on line 1-1 of Fig. 6, and

Fig. 8 is an end view of the shield of Figs. 5 and 6 showing the action of the spring in opening the shield member.

Referring to Fig. 1, a projectile I which may be either a bomb or a rocket, and which is hung in an exposed position under the wing of an airplane is provided with a fuze 3 in the nose thereof. This fuze is shown as a photo-electric proximity fuze having a curved, opaque nose portion 5 and an annular lens 6 immediately there behind. The fuze is also provided with a wind vane or turbine l which drives shaft 9 to actuate the fuze mechanism when the projectile is in flight. Turbine l is housed in casing II which is provided with an annular row of entrance ports [3 for permitting entrance of air to the turbine and another annular row of exhaust ports IE to provide an unobstructed flow of air for operating the turbine. A Venturi shield 11 is fastened to casing I I as by screws 19 to increase the aerodynamic efliciency by providing a forward scoop portion for entrance ports [3 and a protected rearward Venturi portion for exhaust ports I5.

The above described description is typical of one form of fuze to which my invention is applicable but does not itself constitute the subject matter of the present invention which will be described below.

It will be obvious that if ice or snow is permitted to cover the annular lens 6 or the entrance ports Hi, the fuze will not be operative when the projectile is launched. To prevent this possibility, I provide an ice guard in the form of a sheet of resilient material 2| such as Phosphor bronze or spring steel. Sheet 2| may be formed from a flat annulus with a small sector removed leaving edges 35 and 31 (Fig. 4) which, when they are brought together, will cause the sheet to assume the shape of a truncated right cone as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The periphery of member 2! is provided with a number of bent-over lugs 23 which may be struck from the original sheet or fastened thereto by riveting, welding, or any other suitable means. For maintaining edges 35 and 37 in abutting relationship, I provide plates 25 and 21 riveted or otherwise fastened at 29 and provided with aligned apertures 3! cooperating with aperture 33 near edge 35 so that when edges 35 and 31 are in abutting relationship a wire passed through the respective apertures will keep these edges together against the resilient tendency of sheet 2! to separate them. Fig. 3 shows the manner in which the ice guard is effective to protect lens 6 and apertures l3 when in place. Arming wire 83 passes through one of the exhaust ports l5 into the path of a turbine through an entrance port 13 and through apertures 3| and 33 to retain the ice guard in place. A Fahnestock clip 4| may be employed as additional friction means to keep wire in place.

It will be apparent that the construction shown provides an ice guard which can be readily assembled on the fuze without the use of tools and which will employ only the customary arming wire to retain the ice guard in position. Upon withdrawal of the arming wire, which is customarily employed even without the ice guard, the guard will fly away from the fuze due to the resilient action of the material of which it is composed as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3.

A modified form of ice guard is shown in Figs. 5 through 8 in which projectile 5| provided with fuze 53 which may be similar in construction to fuze 3 is provided with ice guard 54. This consists of two generally semis-cylindrical members 55 and 52- formed to provide piano hinges at edges 30 and 62 as shown. A permanent hinge pin 65 is provided for one of the hinges so formed, the hinge pin for the other hinge being provided by arming wire 11. The ice guard may be provided with a rearward annular skirt portion SI for protecting the exhaust outlet of the fuze and a forward annular flange portion 63 is employed to retain disc 7G in place to completely cover the front portion of the fuze. A wire spring 51 is employed to urge the two halves of the ice guard to open position as shown in Fig. 8. Retaining pins 65 and H keep spring 61 positioned. Pin II also extends through an aperture 73 in the casing and windshield of the fuze into the path of the turbine 75 to prevent rotation thereof when the ice guard is in place. A Fahnestock clip 59 is employed as before to prevent wire Ti from being accidentally displaced.

The action of the ice guard will be obvious from its construction. When wire 71 is withdrawn, spring 6! forces the edges of the ice guard apart so that it falls away from the fuze to permit unobstructed action thereof.

It will be apparent that the construction of the ice guard may be varied somewhat in detail to suit the particular fuze with which it is intended to be used, the above modifications being only exemplary of my invention which is defined in the appended claim.

I claim:

An ice guard for an artillery fuze, said ice guard comprising a resilient annulus having a radial section removed therefrom and forming two radial edges, one of said radial edges provided with a pair of spaced plates adapted to receive therebetween the other of said radial edges, said plates provided with aligned perforations, said annulus provided with a perforation adjacent the said other edge and adapted to be aligned with said perforations, a plurality of spaced tabs along the peripheral edge of said annulus substantially at right angles thereto, said guard stressed over the nose of said fuze until said perforations are in alignment and said tabs are in gripping relationship to said nose whereupon an arming wire is inserted in said perforations to maintain said ice guard in releasable engagement with said fuze.

LAURENCE A. OBRIEN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,396,245 Butler Marl 12, 1946 2,400,002 Hebard May 7, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 17,438 Great Britain of 1912 280,947 Germany Dec. 2, 1914 

